With the introduction of financial tools like debit cards, smart cards and other “stored value” cards, consumers have more ways to access funds than ever before. Likewise, the number of systems which can use these devices, like ATMs, debit terminals, telephone IVR systems, and internet-based systems have similarly multiplied in number. One of the effects of this increase in electronic access cards and systems is a corresponding increase in our dependence on electronic funds transactions.
To perform many of these financial transactions, some sort of financial card is needed. This could be an ATM card, Debit card, or credit card, or smart card. Many of these cards contain a magnetic strip which is encoded with a unique number. This unique card number is then associated by the issuer with one or more accounts owned or controlled by the client. These cards are issued directly by banks or other financial service companies, and tend to either be mailed to the client's home address, or given to the client in person at a bank branch by bank personnel. This is a time consuming, complicated manual process.
Once the users have access to this financial card, they may perform electronic transactions with the accounts associated with the card, for example, getting cash from their checking account via an ATM machine. However, should the users not have access to their card(s), for whatever reason, they are obviously prevented from benefiting from the use of these machines.
In the case where a user's card has been lost or stolen, replacing the card is liable to be time-consuming, with the user needing to physically present himself/herself at the bank branch to request a replacement, or calling the bank by telephone and having replacement cards sent by mail.
In many cases this delay may represent a significant hardship, especially in circumstances where the user has had his/her wallet or purse, containing said cards, stolen, and doubly so if this has happened outside of banking hours. In such circumstances, restoring a user's access to cash becomes critical, but is often complicated by the loss of identification contemporaneous to the loss of the cards, since both are often stored in the same location.
Flitcroft in U.S. Pat. No. 6,636,833 teaches a credit card system and method which uses temporary credit card numbers which become inactive after a certain period or amount of use. Holec in U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,511 describes a card issuance system and process which is essentially a machine which would print cards for a user. Walker in U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,155 discloses a method and apparatus for issuing gift certificates attached to credit cards or other financial accounts. Dorf in U.S. Pat. No. 6,189,787 teaches of a multifunctional card which may be attached to a number of different types of accounts, such as financial, gift card, phone card, medical, etc. Cash in U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,852 discloses a system for issuing ATM cards based on paper forms which can be mailed into the bank so no physical presence would be required.
Spector in U.S. Pat. No. 6,578,761 discloses a means by which customers can create ‘satellite’ cards based on a pre-existing account with the new cards being emitted by printing on a computer, or picking up at a kiosk. Cohen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,462 teaches of a consumer-controlled credit card which could be allowed only certain amount of credit, certain types of transactions (i.e. meals), time or use limited, numbers controlled by a calculator-size device, and could further be delivered to the customer disabled, and enabled by the customer as needed. Franklin in U.S. Pat. No. 5,883,810 (Microsoft) discloses a similar temporary card number scheme wherein the user requests a transaction number from his/her issuing institution, which looks and is handled exactly like a regular credit card number.
As seen hereinabove, there has been much activity around the process of issuing cards. However, there is still no simple way for a user to instantly obtain a financial card without contacting the issuer either by travelling to a location where cards are issued, or contacting the issuer by phone or by mail and waiting.
Therefore, a need has arisen for a system, method and apparatus which eliminate or reduce the problems associated with known methods of obtaining financial cards, and which would allow users to substantially instantly self-activate a financial card and attach it to pre-existing account(s).